OK. Thanks.

Yeah, it's a California gull eating alkali flies. They "hunt" them by opening their mouths and running through carpets of flies, kicking up clouds of flies, and catching them in their open mouths.

It's a very rarely photographed behavior, and I think this is the best picture of it that I've seen – but I didn't know whether it was clear to viewers what's going on in the epic.

Good morning, JJ.

Yes, seagulls have brutish personalities, but: Why don't you like them?

Sorta kinda long story, I'll type it in the next post.

Now I'm really intrigued!

Seagulls, like all birds, will crap on ANYTHING. But heres the main story. When I was stationed at Shemya AFB in the Aleutian Islands, seagulls would go down to the beach and pick up Sea Urchens. They would then fly over the end of the runway nearest the beach and drop them onto the concrete thereby breaking them up and then would congregate in the 100's and eat the juicy insides. The shells (the birds mostly) would be so thick that at times when an aircraft would take off or land it would Fod out engines.

Forgot to explain, FOD= Foreign Object Damage. It just means something that could destroy or really tear up an airplane.

Oh, yes. I've seen seagulls do that with purple sea urchins. They also do that with mussels, and with crabs, among other species.

Personally, I find it endearing when they show that kind of ingenuity, to break open hard shells, to eat their food.

Oh and just for the record, I don't like 10-50's, specially when someone has an accident and gets thrown out of their vehicle because they weren't wearing their seat belts!

It does sound like that was a danger issue, both for the birds and the pilots.

Mike, you're right, if it wasn't for the potential damage I wouldn't mind watching them. It's kind of amazing how they figure out how to get to the good stuff!

I'm fading. I better go to bed. Goodnight.